Mary Ann and I hit the McKenzie River a few days ago. It was really great to get the drift boat out on the river again. We had a wonderful sunny day…not always the best for trout fishing. We didn’t see a single adult bug all day so we drifted nymphs under indicators. I took out a 7 1/2′ 5 wt rod that worked well in the drift boat. We didn’t have a tremendous amount of action, but we did wake up a few fish. Here is a taste of our day:
Tag Archives: fly fishing
Furled Leaders for Bamboo Fly Rods from Cuttroat Leaders
I’ve been so excited about matching thread furled leaders with bamboo fly rods. They have an amazing feel, turn flies over extremely well, and are an incredible match with bamboo. Michael Morin at Cutthroat Leaders offers some really great furled leaders. After watching his video, it’s hard to not try them:
My early years of fishing. Twin Lakes, Washington
My mother just celebrated her 80th birthday this past weekend and the family got together at her home in Richland, Washington. I got the chance to go through some old pictures of me growing up and came across this one. That’s me on the left: 
I remember this trip where my father took my brother and I (yes, we’re twins) out at a very early age to fish. On this trip, he had two fishing rods; one an old Shakespeare bait casting outfit loaded with leaded trolling line and a second, a 9′ 0″ Montague Bamboo Rod set up with an old floating level line. We trolled flatfish on each rod…yes, trolled with a bamboo fly rod. But, it didn’t seem to make a difference as we came home with a nice catch. Looks like a couple of pretty serious anglers! By the way, I still have these two rods. I don’t fish them any more, but they’re displayed in my living room. Lots of memories of my early fishing days!
Here is an earlier photo from one of my father’s “Boys Fishing Trips” to Twin Lakes. It’s probably from the mid-’50s. 
Fishing Bamboo Fly Rods on the Owyhee River
Mary Ann and I got to spend a few days on the Owyhee River in Eastern Oregon last weekend fishing for big browns. The water levels were down to winter lows, which opened up just about the entire river for great fishing opportunities. We tried French Nymphing techniques our first afternoon and each managed to land a nice +20″ Brown in small pheasant tail nymphs. Here is Mary Ann’s nice fish (too bad it was on graphite):
Nice Brown!
The next two days we fished mostly dry flies with small nymph droppers, and were successful with several combinations. Small mahogany duns were hatching early mornings, with blue winged olives also hatching through the daylight hours. I was lucky enough to pick up this 25″ Brown on a #20 Blue Winged Olive dry fly one afternoon:
Big 25" Brown
Finally, here is a fun little video of a couple of fish:
Fishing Bamboo on the Williamson River at Yamsi Ranch
I fished the Upper Williamson River at Yamsi Ranch in Southern Oregon this past weekend. John Hyde was a great host and we found lots of big Rainbows and Brookies. Hoopers with Pheasant Tail Nymph droppers were the most successful. How about this 24″ rainbow on a 7′ 6″ 5 wt Bamboo Rod!